NimbleCommerce, an enterprise local marketing and e-commerce platform, has announced that it now provides Montreal-based ViralNinjas’ viral campaign service to select participants in its publisher network.
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Rakuten Inc. announced today that it is leading a $100 million investment in Pinterest, with participation from existing investors Andreessen Horowitz, Bessemer Venture Partners, and FirstMark Capital, as well as a number of angel investors.
Last November Rakuten bought Canadian-made Kobofor a total of $315 million in cash. At the time Mikitani called the company "entrepreneurial, fast, and strong" and said the two companies have a "shared vision.
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Banks and telecoms generally don't get much love, in Canada or around the world. They're often seen as corrupt and money-hungry, prioritizing profit over people. It seems that the Canadian Federation of Independent Business has taken this stance on the recently surfaced technology of mobile wallets in Canada.
Following CIBC and Rogers announcing a partnership that would see Rogers-powered, BlackBerry-wielding CIBC customers pay for goods with their smartphones instead of their plastic cards, the CFIB game forth to warn Canadian small business owners: brace for the possibility of yet another fee grab. No benefit of the doubt for banks or telcos here.
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The tablet has nearly surprassed the smartphone in web traffic. According to Adobe's latest findings, revealed in its Digital Index report, the tablet is growing web traffic much faster than smartphones, and will generate more visits than smartphones within a year.
Web traffic from tablets more than tripled in 2011 according to Adobe. And tablet web browsing is growing at a staggering 10 times faster than on smartphones, the report found.
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Nearly four in 10 Canadians value the internet as much as electricity and water. 38% of us want smart appliances. 54% of us watch movies and TV shows on computers. And most of us with tablets and smartphones have at least a second screen running while watching our actual television.
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Woodbridge-based toy and gaming company Ganz, best known for Webkinz World, has introduced a "game-changing innovation in family-friendly virtual fun." Ganz has launched Webkinz Friends on Facebook, a teen-targeted version of the interactive online game. Similar to the original game, Webkinz Friends has integrated more social features, taking advantage of the Facebook platform.
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Two months ago, Techvibes reported that Vancouver's newest superangel, Mike Edwards, would be taking over the helm of Vancouver accelerator GrowLab. We warned Vancouver's startup community to buckle their seatbelts and prepare for "massive action" with Edwards in the Executive Director role.
Techvibes sat down with Edwards this morning to learn more about his first big GrowLab announcement—the cohort selected for their Spring 2012 program which kicks off next week.
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What a difference one year makes.
US smartphone ownership is up from 38% in 2011 to 50% today, according to Nielsen, while Canadian smartphone ownership is up to 54% from 36%, according to J.D. Power.
88% of mobile device owners who have downloaded an app in the past month are Android or iOS users. And we now average 41 apps on our smartphones, up from 32 last year.
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Bruce Croxon says that Canadian entrepreneurs are "as smart, or smarter, than anywhere in the world."
The Lavalife founder and star of Dragons' Den told the CBC this week that he finds it "ridiculous" that Canadian tech startups feel forced to move to Silicon Valley to grow: "Canadian companies go to the States to get their money or languish on the shelf because there isn't the support here," he fumed.
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